Police to citizens: for your safety, break the law

Some comments given to Berkeley police officers who have dispensed advice on preventing crime, including a recommendation that we all break the law (and perhaps our necks falling down in the dark, too).

The message that you sent out, if recipients believed it, would make any reasonable person feel unsafe at home day and night. If everybody called the BPD all the time, the BPD obviously wouldn’t be able to cope.

The obvious thing that your message didn’t say is:

“If you are sick of having to barricade yourself at home and keep struggling to fool burglars, tell your representative on the City Council that you’re ready to pay additional taxes to fund a truly effective Police Department with a crime-prevention program that really works.”